Car drama sure leads to cool craft projects!

These leather rings saved my sanity. See, our PT Cruiser has gone kaput. We’ve been without wheels for six weeks now. We have a friend who is a mechanic who has been working on it, but he can’t seem to fix it.

How does this tie into these rings? I’ll tell you…

I make stuff when I’m stressed. Lots of small things. Even if the world is blowing up around me, when I’m worrying/panic-planning I go into a meditative zone, become a worker bee and shut out everything.

Remember this project? 

Well, I went in for Round Two.

Why? Because we’ve been taking cabs, rental cars, buses, grocery delivery, walking, asking friends/family for favors. Plus dropping more than $1400 on car parts. It feels horrible inside and out trying to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B. It makes me appreciate a working vehicle so much. So to burn off stress, I snipped big chunks of leather into flowery shapes. These are the pieces I cut, soaked and molded/sculpted during my time of duress. I started to paint them and then set them aside until further notice. Making things calms me.

Each little snip is a worry I had, transferred into a craft project.

I stopped because after basecoating, I couldn’t find any combos I liked to put the ring pieces together. I needed to walk away.

My sister took me to the movies to cheer me up on Sunday and I had a mini-meltdown. I couldn’t stop crying. I HATE the feeling of being helpless or having to rely on other people for things.

I thought of that and more when I went to bed that night. Maya’s graduation next week.
All the projects I have due outside of work.
Our big Frida exhibt in a few weeks and how I can’t even get to the store to buy my supplies.
What if the car can’t be fixed? What do we do? How will we pay for it?
The laundry!
We need light bulbs!
Two kids in college next year!
If Nana was mad because I hadn’t been to see her in a month. She’s 93, what if something happens to her and I can’t get to her?
What would my future grandkids look like?
What if Scotty McCreey (my least fave) wins American Idol?
My head was spinning with all kinds of stupid stuff like this, worries bouncing back and forth like ping pong balls!
Oh yah, the car is still broken!…and it starts all over, I look at the clock and it is 2:30 am.

I know ‘they’ say everything happens for a reason, but I wasn’t convinced at that moment. I went beyond pity party zone. My heart started racing, I began to tremble and I couldn’t breathe. Finally I jumped up in bed, shook my head and said,

“ARGGH!! STOP!!!”

I closed my eyes and searched for something. Anything to calm me down. I should have read a book or gone in the craft room to chill, but that didn’t come to mind.  Maya Angelou did.

I thought of something she said – during times of high stress, you need to say… thank you. Thank you for not letting the problem be worse, and thank you for having a sane mind in order to deal with the situation.

“OK, I’ll take it,” I thought. Yes. Things could always be a LOT worse. This too shall pass. Just deal with it. Do what it takes to get past this point. I popped one Tylenol PM and vowed to wake up with a better attitude.

The next day the mechanic called to say the timing belt was working, but the pistons were shot. More money. Oh, hell no. Patrick and I looked at one another and at the same time, said, “We’re buying a new car.”

As soon as we both made the proclamation, I felt like 50 pounds had been lifted from my shoulders. For the past 10 years, we haven’t had a car payment. For a while it’s freeing – until said car repeatedly flunks. So we crunched all the numbers to see what we could afford.

We can do this! I hate bills, but I’d rather make a reasonable monthly payment and have a warranty than scramble to pay for mechanics and rental cars.

Friday is the big day! Car shopping!

Now, where do the leather rings come into play? Tonight I went in the studio to burn off nervous energy. I wanted to make something that didn’t have a deadline or paycheck attached. I saw my half-painted leather pieces of the rings-in-progress and went to town!

They were the perfect therapy.

These are the end result! They came our bright and cheery and full of hope. Now I want to make big earrings and exploding brooches too!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still nervous about the car situation, Maya’s graduation, Nana, my upcoming art exhibit and my novel outline to finish, but I’m not worried. We all have our lists, right? It’ll all be fine and year later I’ll look back and laugh.

Right?

And if worse comes to worse, I can always make more leather rings!

Kathy 🙂
Check out my new novel! MISS SCARLET’S SCHOOL OF PATTERNLESS SEWING